All Things Must Pass
by Maddiecake
Summary: There's a strange disease sweeping the United States... how will one survive?
1. All Things Must Pass

_So I figured I'm getting good at updating these at least once or twice a week. Naturally, my brain thinks 'well why not start another?' I'm quite happy with the number of reviews I've been getting and—well… Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead… pretty much loads of zombie movies inspired this. I've only seen NotLD like… once when I was younger, DotD a year ago and SotD I'm watching right now. _

_At the moment nothing belongs to me_

The first thing she thought when she opened her eyes was how thirsty she was, and how soaked she seemed in comparison to the dry, scratchy feeling in her throat. As if she had been dumped in a large vat of water, but none of it had gone into her mouth. The next thing she felt was confusion at the strange room she occupied; no longer seeing the colourful walls that Jude had given her, but instead seeing depressing, gray brick.

Thirst overruled her confusion and she stood up, noticing for a moment that she was wearing a pair of men's pajamas that seemed much too big for her. Blue with lavender piping, hanging off her thin body. She dwelled on this as she wandered out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall, ignoring the fact that there wasn't a cup and simply sticking her hands beneath the faucet, letting the water run over them until she lowered her head and drank.

Unlike the bathroom she happened to use at her usual apartment, this one had a mirror and she looked up at her reflection with a startled expression. All her life she had been petite, thin, fragile-looking, but as she saw herself for the first time she realized that something had gone horribly wrong. Her dark eyes were sunken, cheeks hollow; her black hair was messy and tangled, sticking to her forehead as sweat evaporated off her body.

She didn't understand what could cause something like this, unable to wrap her mind around a way that her looks could be altered so drastically by one night's sleep. With a frown she un-did the buttons of the strange pajamas and slipped into the shower, delighting in the feel of the warm water against her skin.

Getting out she wrapped a towel around her body and wandered back into the strange bedroom. Upon inspection she found that there were no more changes of clothes, and it was with reluctant disgust that she donned the pajamas once more. Her head was beginning to ache; a dull throbbing behind her eyes that made her question the actions of the night before. When she looked around the room again her mind searched for an explanation, something to explain her new location, her new look…

Voices from the other room met her ears, familiar and very much welcome. Relief flooded her and she ran a hand through her damp hair before exiting the room, padding into the room that served many purposes, her expression going from relif to shock at what she saw. Everyone living in the apartment, save a few that weren't equipped to be up at the ungodly hour of ten, was clustered around the television set Paco had brought by such about a year ago. Jude hadn't been quite happy then… or so she had heard, having not come back until much later.

Those who were around the television were some of her closest friends, but their overall appearance was one that appalled her. Yes, they might not have had a lot of money but they still managed to look presentable. Lucy's blonde hair was tangled, her clothes looked somewhat old. She was perched on the arm of the chair occupied by Jude, who had an overall disheveled appearance, worry etched onto his face. Next to the couple was Max, who, judging by the stubble on his face, hadn't shaved in quite a while.

Behind this sorry-looking group was Jojo, his usual calm expression gone and replaced with a tight-lipped sort of worry. None of them looked up when she entered the room, at least, not until she cleared her throat.

Jude was the first to look up, and a tired grin spread across his features. "Pru!" He vaulted off the seat and picked her up in a large hug, holding her for a long time before realizing what he was doing and letting her go with an embarrassed cough. "'s great to see you."

Then Prudence was surrounded, it seemed, with some of her friends patting her on the back, others giving her hugs. Their reactions failed to make her feel better, but confused her even more. Biting her lip she looked around at everyone's expressions, at the way their eyes flitted nervously toward the television.

"What… where'd I go?"

This time Lucy was the one to break the ice, looking concerned as she draped an arm around Prudence's shoulders. "You were really sick… Desmond found you in the bathroom, convulsing… it didn't look good…"

"_We'll have to disinfect the place."_

"_WHAT?!" Sadie's reaction was certainly not what the men in the apartment wanted to hear. When they had been called, it had been on a doctor's recommendation only because he wasn't sure what was wrong with the small Vietnamese-American girl that had been found in the lavatory. She had been moved shortly after, delirious and shaking, into a bedroom far in the back of the complex._

_One of the men, wearing a full suit of what seemed like rubber, and a face mask, looked over everything and then turned to Sadie. "You heard me. It's too dangerous—"_

"_But that's _Prudence_," Max exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the girl's room. "She's our fucking _friend_ you don't expect us to leave!"_

_Jude, meanwhile, was sneaking back to the bedroom. He had been slipping in and out of that room with various things like water, and whatever Prudence happened to ask for in her state. This time he clutched a glass of orange juice, condensation rolling off the sides, but was stopped by a man who was now blocking the entrance._

"_You can't come in here."_

_The phrase was about as impersonal as you could get, which made Jude angry. Max could see him from the 'whatever room' getting more and more frustrated as he tried to reason with the man. "'Ey, tha's me _friend_ in there ye don't jus' expect me ta leave 'er, d'you?!"_

"_Sir, I'll need to ask you to come with me—"_

"_Bugger off!"_

"_Si—"_

"_NO."_

_He made an attempt to get past the man but crumpled with a particularly painful-sounding punch to the jaw. The glass dropped from his hand and shattered on the floor, pieces of it flying in all directions and the juice splashing upon the ground. If the man at the door noticed any change, he didn't show it, and continued to stand staring straight ahead._

"_What the fuck did you need to punch _him_ for?" Sadie's voice was getting shrill, which was a very rare thing indeed. "He was bringing her a glass of orange juice!" It was also rather rare to see Sadie get so worked up over something, but considering the circumstances, nobody thought anything of it._

_Lucy chose to enter the room then, having been talking to Desmond who had been quite shaken at finding Prudence and had gone into his room. "What's going o—Jude?" She frowned and headed over to her boyfriend, who hadn't moved an inch since the punch. "What the hell?"_

"_We're going to have to ask you to leave… you'll be quarantined to avoid further exposure—"_

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Max questioned, glaring at the man talking to them._

"_Naturally it means you'll have to—"_

"_No, no, I get what _that_ means, but what I don't get is why you think we'll _leave_."_

"_Sir, this is highly contagious."_

"_So's fucking chicken pox but I survived that!"_

_Eventually they wore the men down, all of whom left. One paused to look over the supposedly doomed group, mumbling 'you're crazy' as he turned his back and left the apartment._

Prudence listened to the story with growing horror. She had been _sick_? And there had been men coming to quarantine the entire apartment?

"H-How long was I out?"

"Six days," Jojo's voice was still soft, but strained somehow as he walked back to the television, staring at the screen nervously. "Give or take."

She wasn't sure how to handle that sort of news, with the idea that she had been so sick that there had to be a quarantine, and that they had _stayed_ with her. At that moment she truly felt lucky, but also somewhat guilty for possibly exposing her friends to a virus that could very well kill them.

"You didn't have to stay," she murmured as she moved toward a window, looking out onto the streets that were usually so active. What she saw out, however, made her gasp and jump away.

_BAHAHA._

_I wanted to try my hand at writing something involving Prudence. And Desmond. Because he's amazingly awesome to the MAX.  
Expect an update from ILtGT sometime tomorrow, or the next day._


	2. Castle Down

_I'd nearly forgotten about this until someone reviewed recently! So here's an update... granted, not the most luxurious update (luxurious in this case meaning _long_) but it'll have to do until I update everything else. I'm trying for once a week or so but we'll see how far we get, yeah? Basic disclaimer applies but I _do_ own Leon. Not a Beatles-related name but his last name is "Pepper" if it makes you feel any better. XD_

It had been a long time since New York had seen empty streets. So long that nobody that would ever remember such a time was long gone and empty streets were the thing of legend. There always seemed to be cars, honking, filling up the air with their exhaust. Now, however, it was gone. Cars were parked by the sides of the road, some haphazardly parked in the middle of the road, but nothing moved. Empty buildings stared back at Prudence, their windows dark, like haunted eyes. Max's eyes after the war.

She shuddered and pulled away from the window to find her friends looking back at the television. "What happened?" Her voice was so small, frightened, confused and she was beginning to feel frustrated because they were trying to tip-toe around it.

"You weren't the first," Lucy mumbled as she leaned into Jude tiredly. "It kept going higher and higher and they kept ringing the bells..." Tears slipped down her cheeks, got lost in the blonde hair that fell over her face and Jude pressed his lips to hers, looking distressed if not a little distracted. He rubbed small circles on her back as she brought her knees to her chest, barely sitting on the edge of the chair and more like nearly falling on top of her boyfriend.

When Prudence showed no sign of understanding, Jojo patted the chair beside him and she took a seat, curling her legs under into a 'criss-cross-applesauce' sort of position.

"Like Lucy said," his overall demeanor had changed, his voice that had once been slow and soothing, was somewhat clipped and his tone was a bit sad now, "you weren't the first. Turns out the government was screwing us over. Rather save themselves a country of panic and let 'em all die instead. We don't know what it's been doing but everyone who can stays inside. You don't touch them, you don't look at them..."

"Who?"

Jojo chuckled; the sound devoid of any humor. It sent shivers up Prudence's spine and she looked nervously at the rest who were hardly listening. "Well they're the undead. Like those movies I used to watch..." He chuckled again and shook his head, expression pained. "Shouldn't have lied to us. They developed a cure but—"

"Cheap bastards held it off," Jude mumbled, looking slightly sick. "They just kept saying '_we're gonna get a cure soon, hang in there, support America and we'll get through it together'_." He choked slightly, coughed, Sadie's head snapped in his direction and she regarded the Liverpudlian with concern for a moment. "My mum's said people're starting to talk about it back home."

But Prudence didn't understand why they had stayed with her. Weren't they able to contract the virus, whatever it was? Wasn't it possible that they would die?

"What about you guys?" She asked, biting down on her lip and looking at her friends again. "... you said they said it was contagious... won't you get it?"

"Well Leon already did," Max said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Think he's still back in his room."

As if on cue a frighteningly thin figure stumbled out of one of the back rooms. Leon was a relatively new tenant, a brilliant drummer that had replaced the old one, who had moved on to bigger and better things. He was only seventeen, running from a family he hadn't really wanted to talk about, and was quite an optimistic person, always smiling and a bit stupid at times, but a good kid. Now his face was drawn and he had a blanket held closely around himself. His brilliant blue eyes were dull, usually disturbingly-neat black hair was tousled and he looked rather confused.

"Wazzappened?"

"... we gave him a shit-ton of aspirin," Max added, never tearing his eyes away from the television, "because he wouldn't stop moaning about a headache or something."

Prudence looked into the eyes of the boy that had been going through something so similar to what had happened to her and felt a sympathetic smile tug at the corners of her lips. "Hey Leon."

He seemed to become more awake and gave Prudence his usual dizzy smile, although this one didn't quite reach his eyes. "Hey Pru." A yawn contorted his features for a moment before he padded over to a spot in front of the couch and plopped down, closing his eyes and resting his head on Sadie's legs where he proceeded to fall asleep again.

Eventually, through constant awkward silences and interruptions among the storytellers, she found out what had happened.

Several months ago the first case had been reported, a little boy by the name of Dakota Savoy who had dropped dead in the middle of his Sunday school class after complaining of stomach aches. It was assumed that Dakota had been sick for a very long time, something life-threatening his parents hadn't known about in time and nobody ever looked into it.

The next was a farmer somewhere in Illinois, nameless due to the government's covering the whole thing up, complaining of similar symptoms and at last staggering into a local bar where he died in the doorway. Unable to ignore this (it was spreading amongst the people who had come into contact both with Dakota and the nameless farmer), the government stepped in and began to work on finding the cure, meanwhile assuring the public that nothing was wrong.

At first the general populace accepted this, that it was nothing more than a bad case of influenza, but when things began to go wrong, they demanded real answers. Trying their best to contain the panicked masses, the government issued a placebo, a sort of flu-shot for everyone who felt the need for it and could afford it. Nothing but a very minor sedative but the US settled down none the less (minus those who could not afford it).

Eventually the disease was widespread, all over the country and creeping up into Canada and down into Mexico and South America. People would be sick, writhe about in bed for a few days and then fall still. Sometimes, even during the burial, they would become reanimated and begin to feast on the flesh of the living regardless of relation. The government attempted to hide all of this by decapitating the undead and, finding that effective, tried once more to calm everyone down.

By the time Prudence had contracted the disease (which was easy in a place as big as New York) there were quarantine teams all over the US cutting off people from their loved ones who happened to show the symptoms. Doctors weren't called, but the quarantine men would stand outside the door, armed and ready for the reanimation. Sometimes there would be the lucky ones who would survive and be released from their homes to reunite with their friends and family, but that was a rare occurrence.

People in New York had dropped like flies, catching the virus and dying as swiftly as they had during the Yellow Fever back when America was still a new concept. Bells had been rung, church bells ringing in time with each noted death. Incessant ringing, a frightening sound, and newscasters would rattle off numbers like it was some sort of baseball game that they were never going to win.

"And... that's it?" Prudence asked quietly.

"... most of it," Leon murmured, having woken up during the explanation. "Too many're dying an' we can't stop them forever."

She shuddered at the monotone, peering over the edge of the couch to see him in the same position, staring blankly up at her. "But we're safe, right? I mean... you guys've gotten along just fine so far..."

Silence greeted her painfully hopeful question, and all of the people present in the room jumped as a long, high-pitched scratching sound came from the other side of the front door.


	3. Lux Aeterna

_Is this an update? Why, it must be!__  
School's started again which means my updates won't be... frequent. Kind of like now. XD  
Same rules apply and all that good stuff_

"Shh." Jude's voice floated through the main room in the apartment, he placed a finger to his lips and Prudence found herself shaking despite the fact that she had no idea what lurked behind the door.

Slowly, the Brit stood up and made his way over to the door. She noticed his hands were shaking, noticed the way he bit down on his bottom lip as he peered through the small glass circle that allowed one to look out into the hallway. It must have been a distorted image but obviously it was enough to make him jump back from the door, as if scalded by even being near it.

He took a deep breath and turned back to the others, Prudence was first to speak and she got off the chair, padding over to where he stood and looking up at him. "What's on the other side?"

Another scratching sound, then a _crack_ and a large split appeared on the door. The chunk of wood from the split fell back, revealing a half-rotted face. The right eye, covered in a milky-white film, hung from its socket on a jumble of nerves and other things while the other fixed itself upon the group.

Prudence screamed.

"_Fuck_, it's not gonna leave," Max hissed as he scrambled back, as did everyone else, Prudence and Jude included. The dead being shoved its arm through the door, the skin hanging off and ripping away to reveal softer flesh beneath, or sometimes the cuts were deep enough that you could see muscle. Even bone.

It searched for the doorknob, Prudence noticed, and obviously wasn't as stupid as movies would like you to believe. This frightened her even more and they all found themselves paralyzed as the door swung open, revealing one of the undead.

"Ohshitohshitohshi—" Lucy's voice was reaching octaves that shouldn't have been possible and clutching tightly to Jude who looked sick. Sadie and Jojo appeared to be calm, although the way they held each others hands, as if the other were their lifeline, said otherwise. Max pulled both she and Leon back, pulling them into the kitchen and mumbling something about getting a knife or something to kill it.

"You can't kill it," Prudence mumbled, unable to take her eyes off the figure that was making their way toward the group, "it's already _dead_."

And then it leapt forward, and Max grabbed up a cutting board, the one Prudence remembered Lucy buying and insisting they use to cut things. The young man rushed forward, his eyes wide with fear but holding a certain determination as he brought the board down with a sickening _crunch_ upon the thing's head. It collapsed in upon itself instantly and the thing fell forward, blood and brain leaking out onto the floor.

Somewhere in the back Lucy vomited.

There was an eerie silence in the apartment, Max holding the board tightly and staring at the mess that had been created. After a few minutes of just staring he turned back to the group and dropped the board. There was blood on his face, ropey things that may have been something inside the thing's head and one was draped across his nose. He looked horrified.

"We can't stay here," Jojo announced, looking down at the creature with something like disdain. "These things'll kill us."

It didn't need saying twice and they all filed out of the room, one person clutching at someone else with Max bringing up the rear, board in hand and his face slowly turning a sickening shade of green.

Prudence reeled back at first, gagging but refusing to let herself throw up. The entire complex smelt of rotting flesh and death, of blood and human waste. To her the building used to smell like the city; exotic and wonderful, but now it was just frightening. Everything seemed darker and she found herself clutching Leon's arm as they moved slowly down the stairs.

They made it onto the street with little to no problems but after that, nobody was sure where to go. Out of the corner of her eye Prudence saw something move in the shadows and tried to press herself into Leon a bit more but it didn't help much. He was thin, and he wasn't going to be much protection. Still, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she could feel him shaking.

"Where to?" Lucy's voice was soft, afraid and she looked like she wanted to cry. "I-I mean... the zombies—"

"Don't say that," Jude said, cutting her off but not lifting his head to look at anyone else. When he did, Sadie swore under her breath and Lucy staggered back and into Max, who had come up behind her. Jude seemed to be unaware of what was going on and the others seemed to be unsure about letting him know.

"... say w-w-what?" Leon asked.

"The zed word... don't go _saying_ it." He sounded nervous now, wringing his hands and looking over his shoulder. Paranoia. Jude didn't want people saying it because it made everything real and it meant that whatever had hit Prudence and Leon was probably going to hit all of them.

He noticed everyone staring at him, edging away, and he frowned. "Wha? Have I got something on my f—" but he had turned toward a window and saw his reflection in the dusty glass. He saw the bruise-like circles beneath his eyes, the pale yellow, paper quality of his skin and the way it stretched across his bones. Like he was so sick his body was about to give up. Jude's lips pulled back, a sort of grimace/snarl as he brought his head down into his hands, fingers tangling in his hair. At the same time he crouched down, almost into a ball, resting on the balls of his feet and his shoulders shaking.

"_I'm not gonna die I'm not gonna die everything's okay_," his words were choked, as if he was holding back his tears, and nobody tried to approach him. He was contagious, after all.

When Jude straightened up his eyes were red, but his face was dry. He hugged himself, knowing that nobody would go near him if he was like that. Prudence felt a pang of guilt, well aware of what he had done to make sure she was okay, what _all_ of them had done, but she shied away like everyone else.

"Jude?"

Max looked at his best friend, pitying him. When there wasn't a response he continued, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "You should probably go back to the apartment... just..."

"You don't want me around?" The question was almost childish, delivered with a soft whine in his voice but the hurt look he gave his friends spoke volumes, even without the question. It was heartbreaking, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to be with them even though he had been there throughout everything else.

"Jude, we can't keep you... we'd have t'quarantine you and we just can't _do_ that if we're moving." Lucy was in on it too, now. Prudence saw Jude's bottom lip trembling, his eyes unable to hold the tears that formed there.

"L-Luv?" He looked at her pleadingly, waiting for her to say it was just a joke and nothing else, but she didn't say anything more on the matter and leaned her head tiredly on her brother's shoulder.

When it seemed as if no one would support his staying he turned, sniffling as quietly as he could as he shuffled down the sidewalk, shoulders curved in around himself and only a few moments later Prudence went tearing up the sidewalk after him, dragging Leon behind although he didn't seem to be quite aware of what was going on.

"JUDE!"

He turned, his face wet, his teeth cutting into his bottom lip, and looking like a child that had just been punished and sent to bed without any proper supper.

"Hm?"

"... well, I guess we'll go, too," she said with a smile, but both noticed that she didn't try and hug him which was probably just a precaution. She didn't know if you could get the sickness after you caught it the first time, and she didn't want to find out.

With that, the two groups went in opposite directions, neither one going back into the apartment.

It was too dangerous.


End file.
